Collective law department activity meta-post: benchmark, groups, cost-sharing

Previous posts have explored examples of law departments joining together for their collective and individual benefit, such as sharing software development costs (Sept. 21, 2005 and Cisco), a purchasing consortium (July 21, 2005 for an HR system), joint technology development (May 20, 2005), and artificial intelligence software (March 27, 2005).

Benchmarking projects, where law departments share data so that everyone gains effectiveness, is the most common form of collective activity involving law departments. Other forms include membership in shared interest groups (See my post of Feb. 2, 2005 about GC groups), some lobbying activity, and sharing defense costs. On sharing costs, Arizona Electric Power Cooperative, one of 20 utilities sued in an antitrust case, shared one counsel. (40 AZ Attorney 12 (Nov. 2003)).